Mason County homeless left out

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, December 30, 2005

SHELTON -- Mason County officials are again searching for a place to house homeless people during severe cold weather, after plans to bus them to shelters in Thurston County died.

County staff members and Shelton city workers suggested Thurston County shelters this week when they were unable to agree on a local site. At the city's request, homeless advocate Lisa Hayes of the Cold and Hungry Coalition contacted several shelters in Thurston County.

None had room for the Mason County homeless.

"Mason Transit was willing to provide some transportation, but ultimately it didn't go anywhere," said city spokesman Jay Ebbeson. "We were looking at it as one of several options. It just didn't pan out."

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Last year, the Cold and Hungry Coalition operated an emergency cold-weather shelter at St. David's Episcopal Church in Shelton. Hayes and the Rev. Jeff Sells applied for an extension of a conditional-use permit to keep the shelter open.

But city staff members wrote them in August saying the church did not meet fire-code requirements.

The church -- which can accommodate a maximum of 25 people and has never sheltered more than 12 -- is trying to raise $15,000 to bring the building up to code, Hayes said.

The conditional-use permit application has been resubmitted, and city staff members plan to turn it over to a hearing examiner for consideration over the next several weeks.

Until then, Mason County has no place to shelter homeless people when the temperature drops below freezing.

There's no official count, but Hayes estimates that Mason County has 2,000 to 2,500 homeless people, most living in rural encampments.

Municipalities often are slow to admit that they have a homeless problem, said Neil McClanahan, chairman of Thurston County's Housing Task Force and a Tumwater councilman and county undersheriff.

"We've done good work in our community," he said. "All the cities and the county have pulled together for emergency overflow."